Distinctive Symonds St tower block sold for $26m

Views from the Callplus Business Centre stretch from the Waitakeres to the Hauraki Gulf. Photo / Bruce Clarke

The CallPlus Business Centre at 110 Symonds St, one of the largest commercial office buildings on Auckland CBD's Symonds St ridge, has sold for $26 million.

The 8788sq m distinctive tower block on 1852sq m of land, has been sold by Southside Group to South Island-based investor First NZ Properties, which purchased the property to replace Ernst & Young House in Christchurch, following that building's demolition because of earthquake damage.

Gordon Gibson, of Bayleys Manukau office who marketed the property in conjunction with Bayleys Real Estate's executive director David Bayley, says it sold at an 8.8 per cent yield on its net annual rental income of $2.3 million.

The building has three levels of basement parking for 167 vehicles and 10 levels of commercial space above in two wings, with floor areas of 602sq m and 324sq m.

The property has 16 tenants, with the anchor occupant being telecommunications company CallPlus/Slingshot. The building was completed in 1988 as the head office for NZ Forest Products, then one of New Zealand's largest companies.

Bayley says it was one of the better quality buildings constructed in a surge of office developments that came on to the market in the mid- to late 1980s.

"Southside have also invested considerably in totally modernising the internal amenities to ensure the building competes with other A-grade listed stock in the city," Bayley says.

All nine floors of office space, and the ground floor of retail space leased to Sierra Cafe, have been upgraded under Southside's ownership over the past six years. The tower's ducted air-conditioning unit has also undergone a $300,000 upgrade.